Well, what the heck do I know? I set the Worry Meter at 5% last week against Kansas.
The Jayhawks were last in the Big 12 and had only one win on the season against a terrible South Dakota team.
And it took a last minute touchdown on their home field to secure the victory.
And did I mention it was Kansas?
But the Sooner defense has been in a giving mood almost all year this season. As such, yet another mediocre quarterback had a career day against us.
This resulted in Oklahoma coming within a crazy forward hand off on a stuffed 4th down run play of giving Kansas a chance to win the game, with only 45 yards and a sieve-like OU defense in front of them and victory.
I have no doubt that had Caleb Williams not taken that ball from Kennedy Brooks to get the first down, Kansas would have scored the winning touchdown and given the Sooners possibly the worst loss in Oklahoma history.
But Caleb saved the day and the Sooners remain undefeated for at least another week.
Kansas converted 9 of 13 third downs which is almost 70%. They came into the game hovering around 33% on third down conversions. And they routinely needed to go 7, 8 or 9 yards to get the first.
Unfortunately it was very obvious as to why they were so successful. Grinch has lost what little nerve he had.
The “Speed D” has lost its aggressiveness. Either that or Grinch doesn’t trust his players. On third and longs the defensive backs lined up at least 7 yards off the receiver and then back pedaled at the snap.
All the receiver had to do was run the 8 yards to the first down marker, turn around and catch the easy toss from the quarterback for the first down.
All the while the defensive back, while in prime position to defend a long bomb to the end zone, scrambled to stop the receiver from gaining even more yardage beyond the first down marker. And the quarterback had all day to throw, because of course Grinch hardly ever sends more than 3 or 4 guys to rush the passer.
It seems Grinch spends most of the day scared to death that we are going to give up a 70 yard TD pass, in the meantime the opposing team is nickel and diming us to death to get the score anyway.
It just takes longer.
And this of course played right into the Jayhawk strategy of keeping time of possession on their side to keep the OU offense from handling the ball. It’s maddening. And I’m not convinced anymore that it’s because of injuries.
All I have heard the past two off seasons is how much depth we are getting on the defensive side of the ball. And that is what we need to compete for a National Championship.
A few injuries should not result in the defense being this bad if we now have all this so called depth.
Grinch has lost what little nerve he had. The “Speed D” has lost its aggressiveness. Either that or Grinch doesn’t trust his players.
I’m not giving the offense a pass either. The three possessions they did get in the first half resulted in zero points. That’s just shameful against, once again, KANSAS.
The offense righted itself to score 35 points in the second half, but had to convert two 4th downs to do it. Two 4th downs that were basically stopped if not for the athleticism and heads up play of Williams.
Lincoln says it’s frustrating that the Sooners have not played as well as they should have. But says they are getting close. They better get closer. And it better be quick.
This Saturday’s game against Texas Tech should be a relatively easy 2 to 3 touchdown victory. But how many times have we said that this season and we end up in a nail biter?
The Red Raiders fired their coach this week. They are on their second string quarterback who has thrown only 4 touchdowns (3 in one game) to go along with 4 interceptions over 5 games.
They have given up the most points of any other Big 12 team in conference play this year.
But does any of that really matter? Does any of that give Sooner fans hope that this game will be a comfortable win we don’t have to worry about deep into the fourth quarter?
Not this year.
The Sooners could win this came by 30 points. And they just as easily could lose this game the way they have been playing.
I have no idea what’s going to happen. Worry Meter is at 85% this week.
Hey, at least the weather will be nice. With all that being said…BOOMER!!!
NEXT: 2:30 pm Saturday kickoff vs. Texas Tech. 
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